Maybe this should be kept a secret, but...

[Joel]

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdhpnews01

Joel

[Admiral]

Individuals selling just a few CDs will likely be left alone, Creighton said. The RIAA is after the mass sellers who sometimes offer their stock of music to losing bidders

[KvHagedorn]

The RIAA IS organized crime, made legal only by sneaky, underhanded lawyers and lobbyists who STEAL from artists and overcharge for their PIRATED intellectual property. They are a bunch of goddam pimps and are absolutely not worthy of anyone's money. Period.

I always buy my CDs if I want them, simply because it's easier. But morally? Who GIVES a crap? I think what I'M doing is amoral simply because I'm doing what's legal, and giving money to protection racketeers!!

WHO makes laws in this country? Are congressmen up for sale to the highest bidder so the rich can do whatever the hell they want to? Apparently so. Hey, this is the U.S., where you can be a rapist and still smooth talk your way into the White House, on the strength of the FEMALE vote, which you have charmed your way into.. and congress won't even slap your hand when prodded to oust you. I guess anything goes here.

Joel, my point is this.. does God expect us to follow the amoral laws of "this" world in order to maintain our status as "good" with Him? I think He will judge each case on its merits and not brand somebody as "a plain and simple THEIF."


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Kind Regards,

KvH

[KvHagedorn]

Thought of another interesting analogy we all would understand here.. anyone seen <u>Pirates of Silicon Valley</u>? We all know the story anyhow. Basically Steve Jobs walks into Xerox and steals their intellectual property (The GUI and mouse). Does this make him a theif? Probably. But he whines when Bill Gates does the EXACT SAME THING to him in turn! Blah Blah.. but who INVENTED the thing? The poor souls whose minds and creative spirit were owned by Xerox, who were powerless to protect their invention. This kind of corporate slavery is why I will never work for a big corporation, or bother to try and make any brainchild of mine a reality, unless I have the cash to develop it myself. Funny how "free enterprise" squashes all creativity, isn't it? I may die poor, but at least I won't have made anyone else rich in return for nothing. I think that's why we have such mediocre music being put out there on CD by the labels.. people who can't sing and can't play worth a crap.. The good artists are probably all playing out their disillusioned hearts in coffee houses for rent. Screw corporate America and its government lackeys.

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[Gurm]

Thank you KV. Some of us wouldn't have said it so bitterly, but we feel the same.

There is, it is true, a big difference between "moral" and "legal". I feel no "moral" guilt when I copy a program. I might feel a small "legal" twinge however. Big difference.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[HollyBerri]

Ah! Thanks, KvH and Greebe, for articulating my feelings better than I've been able to.

But since we know someone is going to ask, I might as well say it:

Arent't illegal actions immoral by definition?

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Holly

[Joel]

And just because one person does something wrong that does not make it right for the next person. Didn't your mother every teach you that two wrongs don't make a right.

Joel

[ahartman]

I don't know that illegal means immoral. We all have different ideas of right and wrong (for the big ones, we're probably in agreement).

Conscientious objectors - what they did was illegal, but was it immoral? In their eyes, going to war and killing people is immoral.

Was it immoral for Rosa Parks to refuse to sit in the back of the bus? No way. Was it illegal, absolutely.

One thing that I love is the ability to change those laws we think to be unfair.

[Pneumatic]

Two wrongs don't make a right.
Three lefts make a right
(think about it)

[HollyBerri]

Originally posted by Joel:
And just because one person does something wrong that does not make it right for the next person. Didn't your mother every teach you that two wrongs don't make a right.

Now, let's not drag my momma into this...

The thing that is passed over in your statement, Joel, is the fact that the people who are defining "right" and "wrong" in this case have it all set up so that they win and we lose. So you buy Windows, as is "right"... so the result is that Bill Gates is the richest man around, but half the time your PC doesn't run properly, you are subject to intrusion through the various security holes in the program and its sub-programs, and every iteration of Windows requires more knowledge that you may not want to be forced into learning just to get it to do what you want.

Does my having paid for it give me, or you, or my aunt and uncle struggling to understand their first PC-- have we bought any ability to make Bill listen to us and make Windows what we want or need?

Yeah, right. Suuuuuure we did. In your dreams, maybe.

During the ongoing arguments about the increasing number of bugs in hastily-released games, the advice I read most often was "don't buy it (until it's fixed)".

Well, this does count as "not buying it". And I do ask if 'piracy' is not one of the only avenues open to enable the consumer to express his/her dissatisfaction with the status quo of the software industry.

Most of us "thieves" are perfectly willing to purchase software--as many of us have said-- once it is made available in a form (working smoothly) and at a price that we find reasonable for what we are receiving. But all too often, that is just not the case, the power of the user to change that is quickly eroding, and the power of the creators has long been under the thumb of the 'money men'.

So give me an alternative, other than "be good, bend over and take it". Because that just isn't good enough for me.

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Holly



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 20 August 2000).]

[KvHagedorn]

Joel, my Mother was always very on top of things such as that.. I learned a lot from her. My Dad was also a minister, so I wound up being very surprised when I got out of the house at how unfair the REAL world really is.. no one prepared me for this in my very early life, and I was an only child so no brothers or sisters to fight with.. This is perhaps why I am so particularly bitter about evildoers such as these. I am of a very practical mind on it.. no.. two wrongs don't make a right, but sometimes it prevents the evildoers from continuing their evil ways. Enough said here.

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Kind Regards,

KvH